Andrea Leadsom is accused of inflating her CV to make herself seem a giant of high finance, claims authoritatively rejected by former colleagues. However, the party – which, remember, Mrs May considers “nasty” – must ponder what is fundamentally required of a prime minister: leadership and judgment.

On the greatest political issue of our age, Mrs May lacked both. She was woefully out of touch with the views of the British people; and her refusal to engage in the fight for the Remain side was cowardly.

Mrs Leadsom, a traditional Tory, deserves the support of every member who voted Leave, because without her and people like her there would have been a different result. She has more experience of office than Mr Cameron when he entered No 10, and far more of the real world – even accounting for inflation. I hope she will make her case powerfully, to prevent us having yet more years of weak, non-conservative government.

Learn the lessons of Chilcot – equip today’s Army properly

I see few benefits in persecuting Tony Blair, unless to set a healthy precedent for impeaching prime ministers who make massive mistakes and deceive the country. For me the great value of the Chilcot report was its point that we sent brave soldiers to war with inadequate equipment and poor resources. But has that lesson been learnt? I fear not.

We are sending a battalion to Estonia to show Nato’s solidarity against aggression from Vladimir Putin. I’m delighted our masters are alert to this threat: but all we do by sending a battalion is to put their lives at risk from the overwhelming forces against them. If we redefined overseas aid as defending our allies, we could use the billions it squanders to recruit 40,000 soldiers, and send a division to Estonia instead. Instead, we are deluding ourselves, and our next prime minister must address this scandal urgently.